Hungarian news in English, your guide to the politics of Hungary.

“Help should be taken to where needed”

Hungary will not enforce “a single passage” in the United Nations’ global migration compact, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said during talks with Antonio Vitorino, head of the International Organization for Migration IOM), in Geneva on Wednesday.

Szijjarto told a press conference after the talks that the package was contradictory to Hungary’s interests because “it encourages migration rather than seeking to stem such processes”. The compact, similarly to the European Union’s mandatory quotas, would be “practically equal to an invitation”, Szijjarto said, and insisted that in countries around the EU there are some 30-35 million people “whose conditions could easily motivate them to leave their homeland”.

“We are not going to pay for courses for migrants… we will not hide that mass migration will have serious security impacts and we will not provide the same services to migrants as to tax-paying Hungarians,”

Szijjarto said. The minister added, however, that Hungary could cooperate with the IOM on such issues as helping persecuted Christians to return to their homes in the Middle East or fighting against people smuggling.

Hungary supports political efforts to stop migration and rejects any endeavour to encourage illegal migration, Szijjarto said during the general debate. He noted that Hungary disagreed with several basic tenets of the United Nations global compact for migration, adding that Hungary has withdrawn from its approval process. Just as the migration policies of Brussels have failed, so have the UN’s, he added.

Szijjarto said that Hungary had submitted several amendment proposals to the UN compact aimed at curbing the migration process and taking into consideration the situation and interests of target countries and transit countries. Migration is not a basic human right, and illegal border crossing is a criminal act, he said. Countries’ soverignty must be guaranteed and the development of parallel societies prevented, he added.
Mass migration is one of the most important of the unprecedented challenges that the world currently faces because it can destabilise entire regions, he said. He also highlighted terrorism as a challenge, noting that since the migration crisis started, more than 30 terrorist acts have been carried out in the European Union by “people with a migration background”.

Hungary disagrees with the assumption that migration is a basic human right which should be encouraged because it is beneficial, he said.

He underlined Hungary’s position that people forced to flee their countries should receive help, but the problem must be addressed at its root by overcoming the hardships of the countries of origin. “Help should be taken to where it is needed,” he added. The international community should focus on guaranteeing peace and security to people in their homelands, and if that is not possible, in the countries closest to them. The Hungary Helps scheme is Hungary’s contribution to these efforts, he added.

Despite rejecting the UN compact, Hungary wants to cooperate with the international community in the fight against human smugglers, Szijjarto said.